April Fool: An Esper Roba Birthday Fic
by TobyKikami
Summary: Fluff written in honor of Esper Roba's birthday. Joey and Rex mostly Joey plan a surprise for him. Please review and tell me exactly how bad it is.


AUTHOR'S NOTES: Please don't kill me! *hides* The real names of the Roba brothers are non-canon. Please review and tell me exactly how bad this is... 

April Fool: An Esper Roba Birthday Fic   
YEAR SEVEN The teacher smiled beatifically. "Today is Zachary's seventh birthday. Now, if I understand correctly, Zachary's parents agreed to bring something to share with the class."   
Zachary Roba nodded vigorously, sea green hair swinging. "Yeah! Mushrooms and broccoli!" He waited for the majority of the class to groan or express some kind of disappointment, and then laughed delightedly. "April Fool! Actually, they're bringing…"   
Ten seconds later the entire second-grade class was stampeding for the cupcakes. 

************* 

YEAR TEN "Who would have thought-" Zachary laughed and reached down for a granola bar wrapper, "-that I'd spend my first double-digit birthday picking up trash?"   
His classmate nodded and held the garbage bag open for Zachary to throw it in. "They didn't even announce it this morning like they did with Adrian's! What's with them?"   
"Don't get too full of yourself, Zack!" His other companion laughed. "We're picking up trash too, you know!"   
"Yeah, I know." Zachary grabbed a ball of foil. It joined the granola bar wrapper. "But picking up trash on my birthday. Who would've thought?"   
The first boy cracked a grin as he looked around at the other members of the class roaming around. "Maybe it's their idea of an April Fool?" 

************* 

YEAR SIXTEEN "I can't believe," Rex muttered, "you actually talked me into this, Wheeler!"   
"Hey, look on the bright side!" Joey grinned. "At least ya found another Serpent Night Dragon in that booster!"   
"I spent more than forty bucks on those things," Rex went on, "and all for a fake psychic? Who cheated me out of my first Serpent Night Dragon in the first place?"   
"Hey, nobody stuck a gun to your head and made ya buy them, okay?"   
"No, you stuck a sob story about the poor Roba brothers who have been caught in every catastrophe since the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake into my head and made me buy them."   
Joey shrugged. "Hey, what's done is done. What's bought is bought and I don't think the store gives refunds for opened boosters. And I don't think you want it, do ya? Do ya?" 

The bell rang. Esper Roba had already packed most of his school gear, so it was only a matter of sticking his binder into his book bag. He made his way out the door, shoving his way through the flood of students and ultimately out onto the sidewalk.   
Battle City was long over, but the memory remained. The previous night Esper had had a pair of familiar dreams.   
In the first dream he was in his first and next-to-last Battle City duel, the one against Rex Raptor, at the very end. He had played the card, and the pendulum had begun to swing- but something had gone wrong. The dragon hadn't gone to sleep, as the card said it should have. In the dream Esper had gaped at the complete absence of face-down cards and then at Rex, who smirked and declared, "Serpent Night Dragon, attack Jinzo!" And then the dragon attacked and the attack had gone right through Jinzo and toward Esper, and Esper had awakened screaming for a brief interlude before the crossing to dreams occurred (he never could remember at exactly what point this event took place).   
In the second dream he was dueling Joey and Jinzo had just pointed to Reflect Bounder. He had screamed "Don't reflect!" even though he knew even if by some miracle Reflect Bounder didn't reflect, he would still lose the life points and he would still lose. And in this dream, not only did Reflect Bounder not reflect, Jinzo didn't attack.   
If only some dreams were reality. 

"Put the balloons there!" Daniel Roba shook his head at his younger brothers' efforts. "No, there!"   
Joey turned to Rex. "You've wrapped it, right?" Rex held out one hand and Joey shook his head. "I don't think you're supposed to just stick it in the booster wrappers!"   
"Got any better ideas? Like silk and fluffy-wuffy ribbons?"   
"Um, booster wrappers are just fine." 

Esper knew something was wrong when he heard the level of noise inside the house- not even all his brothers screaming at once could make those noises. He unlocked the door and nearly ran away.   
"You," said Rex, "have been an absolute jerk. Not to mention a cheater."   
"And I don't think," said Joey, "we can ever forgive you."   
Silence. Then Joey nudged Rex, who threw what looked like a booster pack at Esper. Esper opened it and gaped.   
A Jinzo looked up at him.   
Joey grinned. "April fool."   



End file.
